


E.B.E.

by northern



Category: Smallville
Genre: Character Study, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-13
Updated: 2009-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northern/pseuds/northern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written in answer to a <a href="http://liviapenn.livejournal.com/106910.html">challenge</a> by Livia to write a Smallville fic with an X-Files title.</p>
    </blockquote>





	E.B.E.

**Author's Note:**

> Written in answer to a [challenge](http://liviapenn.livejournal.com/106910.html) by Livia to write a Smallville fic with an X-Files title.

The changes are happening a little too fast for him to feel safe now. He's been getting faster and stronger, but that just feels like a natural development, like learning more math, nothing that difficult to deal with.

The X-ray thing is harder to adapt to. It's something new. He thinks he's got the hang of it now, but it still surprises him sometimes and throws his vision into that strange other mode. He's developed a habit of shaking his head to make it go away. He'll work on it later. He's supposed to be able to turn it on and off at will. It just takes a little more work.

It's not like he's going to, suddenly grow fins, or anything.

At least he doesn't think so.

 

***

 

When he's at the castle, sometimes Lex flirts with him. He's unsure of how much Lex thinks that he picks up on it. At times he's sure that Lex thinks he's a total innocent, and that's why he flirts, because it's safe. Other times, he's convinced that Lex really is trying to get his attention. That scares him.

He would like to flirt back, but he's afraid of what that would eventually lead to. He isn't sure that he could hide his abilities if he became that close to someone. To Lex. He isn't considering anyone else, after all.

In bed at night he tries to think himself through all of the situations that could arise in an intimate relationship. Living with someone. Doing household things together. Sleeping together. The last one makes him squirm uncomfortably, but he tries to imagine that too. The way their bodies would fit together. How he would control himself so as not to reveal his true strength.

He's good at control. He has to be. He's learned to be. But as long as new abilities keep showing up out of control, he can't risk something like that. Not if he wants to keep his secrets. And secrets and Lex are a dangerous combination. Lex wants to _know_.

 

***

 

The most important thing in the world to Clark is to act normal, to seem normal to the world outside his family. He's sure that there exists another world somewhere, where he wouldn't have to hide at all. He comes from somewhere, after all. Maybe when he's older there will be space ships to take him exploring. If they've stopped with the medical tests for going into space by then.

He doesn't know. He keeps changing. Maybe he'll be able to breathe vacuum in ten or twenty years. Maybe he won't look human. He doesn't know.

If he could be sure that he would be able to look and act human all of his life, maybe he'd take Lex up on his offer. If he knew that he would be able to control himself completely.

His imagination suggests that he wouldn't.


End file.
